When we reviewed 3rd-gen Ryzen we deliberately used the included box coolers for the majority of the testing. We realized this probably wouldn't satisfy anybody but considering it's included in the price and we've seen decent results on previous generations, information technology'south what made the nigh sense at launch.

Following upward to that testing, today nosotros're going to compare how the Ryzen ix 3900X performs using the Wraith Prism RGB stock cooler against a big 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler from DeepCool, their new Castle 360EX.

Our day-i testing showed that although the Ryzen 9 3900X and Ryzen 7 3700X additional better with improved cooling, we were only talking most a minor increase in frequency. Moreover, the marginal boost in clock speed had lilliputian to no bear on on performance.

Y'all could fence nosotros were doing AMD a solid past testing their CPUs with the box cooler as this could swing things in their favor when it came to the value analysis. But this wasn't the intention at all, rather we wanted to leverage what they had to offer (over again, it'southward included after all). At the same time, nosotros weren't out to destroy Intel'due south price-to-performance either, and so we didn't factor in the cost of a more sophisticated, $160-plus Corsair all-in-ane liquid cooler. Rather nosotros approaching for a solid $75 air-cooler that we would recommend to those looking for enthusiast-level hardware. We also knew that out of the box the Core i9-9900K would evangelize the exact same operation using the be quiet! Dark Rock Pro iv.

Now with baseline performance established, we plan to provide an in-depth criterion session subsequently this calendar week, comparing the 3900X and 9900K head to caput in over xxx games, both stock and overclocked. For the stock testing the 3900X will proceed the box cooler, but for the overclocked results information technology will be upgraded to the same liquid cooler used by the Intel processor.

Merely earlier we practise that, we thought it would be a adept thought to showcase what kind of a difference upgraded cooling makes in gaming and application performance. Today'southward testing was conducted with the Ryzen 9 3900X on the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Xtreme using DDR4-3200 CL14 memory and an MSI RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Ten Trio.

Benchmarks

First permit's have a look at the average all-core clock speed when running the Blender Open Data criterion. This is a heavy workload, then the clock speeds are lower than what you'll see when gaming. Also these aren't the superlative clock speeds seen when running this benchmark, rather they're the average.

Equally you can run into, with the 3900X in its stock out of the box trim, it ran at four GHz in this test with the Wraith Prism box cooler. The Castle 360EX was allowed the CPU too heave upward to 4.1 GHz, a 2.5% increase.

That margin doesn't alter with PBO+AutoOC enabled, the liquid cooler still allows for a 2.5% increment in clock speed, averaging but four.xv GHz in this stress exam. So even if we compare the stock upshot using the box cooler to the overclocked outcome using the liquid libation, we're merely seeing a 4% increase in frequency in this examination.

Now looking at the total render time in Blender we run across that the liquid cooler improved stock performance by a single percent and we run into the same matter when looking at the overclocked results.

We're looking at i% performance differences in Corona likewise, basically the upgraded cooler shaves off a second from the completion time. So what about gaming performance which isn't nearly as CPU enervating, at least correct now for a 12-core processor.

Gaming Benchmarks

Well, nosotros see virtually no modify in performance in Noon Legends. The miniscule delta is within the margin of fault though it seemed pretty clear that the slight increase in frequency typically yielded improve results.

Much the aforementioned is seen when playing Rainbow Six Siege, in fact hither we see no difference with PBO+AutoOC enabled. Information technology's a fleck of a shame that you can't squeeze much more performance out of these 3rd-gen Ryzen processors, only I estimate that leaves something for AMD to ameliorate on for the next generation (...or non).

Vermintide 2 shows up to a 1.5% functioning improvement from upgrading the libation with margins equally minor every bit half a percent. And so you certainly couldn't invest money in a better cooler for these meager fps improvements.

Just there is even so a reason to upgrade and we'll hash out that in a moment...

Unsurprisingly we run across the same kind of results when testing with Earth of Tanks.

Operating Temperatures

Merely how much cooler are we running with the DeepCool Castle 360EX? Quite a bit cooler, information technology turns out.

Stock the 3900X dropped down from 86 C running at an audible 2935 RPM, while the Castle 360EX reduced load temps to just 68 degrees with the three radiator fans spinning at around 1934 RPM. That'due south an xviii degree drop in temperature.

When overclocking the liquid cooler was besides 19 degrees cooler while running quite a chip quieter. However, fifty-fifty at just over 1900 RPM the 3 120mm fans were far from silent, so let'southward plough them down.

Spinning the fans down to just over 1000 RPM made the Castle 360EX basically silent, there's no way you'll hear this in your system. The good news is that temperatures just increased slightly, so the real advantage of the AIO here is the operating volume.

Wrap Up

For running stock the Ryzen 9 3900X doesn't demand a big cooler strapped on for maximum performance and it certainly doesn't require liquid cooling. Even when enabling PBO y'all won't gain much more performance past upgrading the cooler. We're not saying you shouldn't upgrade the libation for lower temperatures and quieter operation, simply that by doing so you won't clasp much actress performance.

For gamers, the bundled Wraith Prism will exist fifty-fifty less of an issue as information technology's very unlikely you'll encounter all 12-cores loaded up. Nosotros observed that when gaming the fan speed was mostly effectually 2000 RPM and much quieter than what we saw when stress testing with Blender.

For those who missed information technology (await for Cost per Frame), when comparing the CPU price alone, the value of these higher-terminate third gen Ryzen parts doesn't wait so bully for gamers. The 3900X costs quite a bit more than the 9900K, while the 3700X matched the 9700K. However, the Intel processors don't come with a cooler and they demand a rather adept one.

Adding $75 to the cost of Intel CPUs for something like the Dark Rock four does change the picture. In that scenario, the 3900X is a whisker cheaper than the 9900K, while the 3700X is a lot cheaper than the 9700K and matches the value of the 9600K.

If you intendance nearly value, the included box libation really helps out. Only on the other paw, if yous want a beastly PC that can nail a rendering job faster than any other sub-$500 CPU and aren't tight with the budget, and so sticking a more constructive cooler on the 3900X certainly won't hurt. Nosotros get out the cooler choice upwardly to y'all.

Shopping Shortcuts:
  • AMD Ryzen 9 3900X on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen 7 3700X on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen 5 3600X on Amazon, Google Limited
  • AMD Ryzen 5 3600 on Amazon, Google Express
  • Intel Core i5-9600K on Amazon, Google Express
  • AMD Ryzen 5 2600X on Amazon, Google Express
  • GeForce RTX 2070 Super on Amazon, Google Express
  • GeForce RTX 2060 Super on Amazon, Google Express